Monty Python musical 'Spamalot' makes Tuscaloosa debut March 22

Actor's Charitable Theatre to stage musical at Bama Theatre

By Keelan MarloweSpecial to Tusk

Published: Friday, March 15, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 8:21 p.m.

Back in high school, my father and his friends used Monty Python to escape the realities of strenuous football practices, long work hours and dreary study halls. Every Wednesday, the group escaped to “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” a sketch-comedy show created by a troupe of English writer/actors, with token American Terry Gilliam, for a couple hours of laughter. Later, they journeyed to Camelot in the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” It was there, in a dark TV den, the gang of adolescents searched for clues to life’s most intricate questions, like what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow, why shrubbery, and most importantly, could coconuts in fact migrate?

The answers to these questions still befuddle audiences today and still have them laughing even 30-something years later. Continuing the legacy, Monty Python co-creator Eric Idle resurrected the Holy Grail quest with his musical comedy, “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

The award-winning production debuted on Broadway in 2005, and has since been performed around the world. For the first time, “Spamalot” has migrated south to Tuscaloosa as the Actor’s Charitable Theatre debuts its rendition of the musical, starting March 22 at the Bama Theatre.

“It is based off ‘Holy Grail,’ the movie, but it has music from the other movies as well,” said Joey Lay, the ACT’s artistic director. “What is ­really neat about the show is that it really is an homage to musical theater. We do every style of musical theater imaginable; there is not anything missed.”

Lay plays King Arthur’s loving squire, Patsy, along with other chorus members. The Tuscaloosa native promises avid Python fans the same outrageous humor that made “Holy Grail” so memorable.

“I am costuming and set designing,” Lay said. “I still have to figure out how (the Black Knight’s) arm falls off, and I still have to figure out how his head falls off, because all of the gags in the movie, like the killer rabbit, are there. I also have to build a full life-size cow that lands on top of me.”

WVUA First at Four news anchor and producer Danny Salter plays King Arthur in the upcoming production. Salter took a break from acting — he has performed with Theatre Tuscaloosa and others — when he began working in television and said this is the first major role he has attempted in 10 years.

“I have loved Monty Python since I was probably 10 years old, whenever I first saw ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ late at night on PBS,” Salter said. “I remember watching it then and seeing people slapping people with fish in the face and dancing and falling off piers and doing silly walks and talking about dead parrots, and I remember the first time I saw ‘Holy Grail’ with some friends of mine. We just laughed all the way through. Whenever I heard they were doing it here, I went and researched it and just fell in love with it.”

“Spamalot” is Tuscaloosa native Johnathan Lyons’ directorial debut, and the first show Lay or his wife, Alisha Powell Lay, has not directed since the company’s 2008 opening.

Lyons says the opportunity to direct is definitely something new to take on — he’s been a regular ACT performer and musical director — but that he has thoroughly enjoyed the process.

“It has been a lot of fun and a very smooth transition for me to get into the directing scene,” Lyons said. “A lot of that has to do with the way the show is written.”

Lyons also serves as musical director. He and the cast have been busy learning dozens of songs, lines and dances.

“They all get the music and the comedy of the show,” Lyons said. “They have risen to the challenge to turn it into something magical.”

Audiences can expect music ranging anywhere from old school vaudeville to hip-hop to traditional Broadway and even a tap-dancing Patsy-coconuts included. “I’m Not Dead Yet” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from “Life of Brian,” are just a couple of the featured songs.

“It is a very funny show, but the music is absolutely gorgeous,” Salter said. “There are so many homages to Broadway and to musical theater; there are tributes to ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Chicago,’ all sorts of things are laced into the show. The music is so much fun to learn because it is so funny and it is so beautiful at the same time.”

Squire Patsy says rehearsal builds the work into muscle memory.

“Just like you sing in your car to your favorite song. It becomes muscle memory to the point where sometimes you get to a number and you say, ‘Wait a minute, did I just do that number? I don’t remember.’ But then, it is also where the curse falls in, because if you become too robotic, you will get lost,” Lay said.

Choreography is pushing King Arthur, Salter said.

“The dancing has been a challenge for me because it has been so long since I have done it, and I am 10, 15 years older than the last time I tried to really dance in a show,” Salter said. “So I am still struggling with it now, but I feel that I will have all my ducks in a row for opening night.”

“Spamalot” will deliver big laughs, Salter said, which is what he believes the show is all about.

“I like to think the best scenes from the movie have been cut and put into this show, and they are all strung together with some fantastic song-and-dance numbers,” Salter said. “This show does have a bit of a message — it is a bit uplifting — just a bit, though. Eric Idle did not get distracted with trying to send out some message with this show; it is all about laughter.”

Staying true to its mission statement, ACT will support United Cerebral Palsy and Northridge High School with a portion of receipts. Past partnerships have included Eagles Wings, Caring Days, Tuscaloosa’s One Place and others. But Lay said ACT’s chief mission is entertainment.

“For me, anytime we do a show, especially a comedy, it is about the experience of getting to escape for two hours,” Lay said. “You get to walk in that theater at 7:30, the lights go down and you forget everything. For two hours you don’t do anything but enjoy it and take a step out of reality.”

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